Review of Two Destination Language/Fallen Fruit by Elizabeth Sheppard
In a heartbeat I was back in ’89. As Bulgarian performer Katherina Redeva stepped on stage in the Braithwaite Hall with pleated skirt, knee high socks and cast iron enthusiasm, she perfectly channeled the school games mistress who tormented me with lacrosse – and never mind the Berlin Wall… now there was a sport I’d have risked my life in No Man’s Land to avoid.
But just as I escaped the horrors of the windswept pitch and its grimly barked instructions, so Bulgaria and all of Eastern Europe cast off oppression to build a bright new world for all of its consumers. Didn’t it? This thought-provoking show, brought here on Saturday 4th May as part of the fourth Croydonites Festival of New Theatre, left me feeling far from sure.
With music, audience interaction and some difficult choices, Fallen Fruit drew us down a path away from certainties. To start with, the cardboard box walls around the stage were firm and foursquare; by the end, the place was strewn with tumbled blocks. They had letters written on them, but what’s the message now?
This subtle, exploratory show didn’t try to give an answer. The world turns, losses come with gains, lives move on and lovers drift apart. Thirty years after the tumultuous ‘Changes’ Redeva remembers from her childhood – which led to the EU’s confident expansion – in Britain we’re gripped by a crisis of identity. Meanwhile to the east, the girlfriends who chatted over coffee in their serious grey communist world followed life in different directions; now they meet again in our shiny western gift to them – a Costa.
This was the second show I’d seen in one day, and Redeva was the second performer to demolish a wall; dancer Valerie Ebowa did it too, in Vinicius Salles’ Disruptive Narratives in the same space two hours before. It’s inherently a joyous thing to witness – but what follows?
Leaving the Clocktower, we were confronted by bulldozers flattening St George’s Walk on one side, and cranes in Queen’s Gardens on the other. Knock down, rebuild, reshape – just be careful what you wish for. A performance all about replacing one world with another was an inspired choice for Croydon right now – hats off to Croydonites’ director Anna Arthur for making it.
Croydonites Festival of New Theatre continues until May 25th – you can book tickets here.
By Elizabeth Sheppard
But just as I escaped the horrors of the windswept pitch and its grimly barked instructions, so Bulgaria and all of Eastern Europe cast off oppression to build a bright new world for all of its consumers. Didn’t it? This thought-provoking show, brought here on Saturday 4th May as part of the fourth Croydonites Festival of New Theatre, left me feeling far from sure.
With music, audience interaction and some difficult choices, Fallen Fruit drew us down a path away from certainties. To start with, the cardboard box walls around the stage were firm and foursquare; by the end, the place was strewn with tumbled blocks. They had letters written on them, but what’s the message now?
This subtle, exploratory show didn’t try to give an answer. The world turns, losses come with gains, lives move on and lovers drift apart. Thirty years after the tumultuous ‘Changes’ Redeva remembers from her childhood – which led to the EU’s confident expansion – in Britain we’re gripped by a crisis of identity. Meanwhile to the east, the girlfriends who chatted over coffee in their serious grey communist world followed life in different directions; now they meet again in our shiny western gift to them – a Costa.
This was the second show I’d seen in one day, and Redeva was the second performer to demolish a wall; dancer Valerie Ebowa did it too, in Vinicius Salles’ Disruptive Narratives in the same space two hours before. It’s inherently a joyous thing to witness – but what follows?
Leaving the Clocktower, we were confronted by bulldozers flattening St George’s Walk on one side, and cranes in Queen’s Gardens on the other. Knock down, rebuild, reshape – just be careful what you wish for. A performance all about replacing one world with another was an inspired choice for Croydon right now – hats off to Croydonites’ director Anna Arthur for making it.
Croydonites Festival of New Theatre continues until May 25th – you can book tickets here.
By Elizabeth Sheppard